I am not a debtor to either Allied Interstate, or the placing entity, Proactive solutions. I am engaged to an alleged debtor, who has on three seperate occasions filed proof with the placement company regarding a change of address, which resulted in the product being returned to Proactive Solutions, which the company, both in a conversation with Courtney S. Operator supervisor #4350, and in a letter, have acknowleged. The letter was forwarded to Allied Interstate as a copy, notorized, and sent return reciept after their initial contact with us. We recieved the return reciept showing that an M. Donavan, (the apparent general manager of this location), had signed for the package, thus providing documentation that she had indeed recieved the letter.
In the letter, a request was made, per the FDCPA that the original creditor, and proof of debt be provided. After waiting nearly 60 days for this information, which is required by the FDCPA, to be provide within 30 days, we presumed that the debt placement was in error, and filed the information away.
On October 20th we recieved a letter from Allied Interstate, claiming that this debt was owed, that we had failed to contact them, and that they would be filing a report within the week with the credit bureas of the alleged debt.
Attempting to contact them I reached first an automated system and selected "speak to a customer service representative", which was answered "Customer Service", not Allied Interstate, which appears to be a violation of the truth and disclosure portions of the FDCPA. I asked to speak to a manager, so as not to have to repeat my story, and futher, asked the name of the person I was speaking to. His response, (which is recorded, as all my outgoing calls are) was "kiss my ass, you dumb ass mo*r F*Ker, and a hang up. I called back at once, went through the same process, spoke to a female who said I was "a lying jackass, and that Ronnie would never say that. I presume that Ronnie is the first person I spoke to, though since he didn't identify himself, I don't know. She subsequently told me no collection manager or supervisor was available. She then put me on hold and disconnected me. I called back again; this time, the same individual who I had spoken to in my first call answered, I said hi, who am I speaking to, please, he said who am I speaking to. I asked again, and he called me a "dumb ass" and hung up. At this point I am furious.
I located some corporate information regarding Allied Interstate, and contacted an office in Mn. There, after explaining that I had a complaint involving the FDCPA i was put in touch with a John Troutmann, a compliance coordinator for Allied Interstate. Mr. Troutmann explained that he was not directly in charge of the New York office, but allowed that Ms. Donavan is employed there, and that, upon verifiying the account information I provided him, that there was a dispute entered on the account, almost 90 days after she signed for the dispute letter. Mr. Troutmann wanted me to give him all my information so he could conduct a complaint review, to which I suggested that he have someone directly involved with the New York office contact me. He said that made since, I gave him a phone number, and waited. He called today to tell me that he would be handling the complaint, that contacting the New York office would not be needed, and that he could only proceed if I sent him original recordings of the conversations.
Of course, I declined, and offered him copies, to which he said he needed the original. At this point I advised him of my relationship to the alleged debtor again, and further stated that the only way Allied would ever be able to hear the original recordings was in a pretrial hearing with attorneys for both myself, (the abused non debtor), and Allied Interstate present. He said that was not acceptable, and at that I advised him of both the name of my attorney, and the case number for the legal filings made on my behalf today against Allied Interstate. I also gave him the report number filed with the AG in Ohio, and the AirBill number of the copies of the recordings overnighted to the AG in Columbus, and recieved by them, signed for by D. Marison at 9:23 am.
Mr. Troutmann then expressed his displeasure at my taking such actions, and I advised him that under the FDCPA debtors are protected from abusive, misleading, and harrassing communication by debt collectors, and that non debtors were even more stringently protected. As I am a non debtor, and the abuse occured to me, my litigation falls outside the perview of the FDCPA, and prevailing law is that of slander/deception/abusive/harrassing and or discriminatory communications, covered by both Ohio Stature, and by Federal Statute, as seperate offences, not bound by the FDCPA thus opening Allied Interstate to presecution for damages beyond the stated amounts of the FDCPA per incident.
In addition, because of the FDCPA violations a seperate complaint was filed as well. The John Doe collector has yet to be identified, although I have requested that a voice print analysis be conducted on all male collectors at the New York facility. I realize that I have to pay for that, and that until and if I win in my suit, I will not be compensated for it. The difference is, I have the werewithall to do so, thus I will.
Allied Interstate, according to a short public records search, using Allied Interstate Inc. As the defendant, is currently facing lawsuits in the states of NC, Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Minnisota, Michigan, Virginia, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, and Alabama.in North Carolina, Illinois, and Arizona, Allied Interstate has entered into class action settlement agreements that pay over a total of $20,000, 000.00 in recompensatory damages, across the scope of the suits. While Allied Interstate has denied liability in each case, paying 20 million dollars in them, is to me, pretty reliable proof of wrongdoing.
I also have done research into seperate actions against Allied Interstate and found that they have been sanctioned, probated, or denied collection privleges in seven different states since 1999. Regardless of the name of the company, Allied Interstate does business in several states under several different names, it shows a pattern of behavior at the corporate level that is not consistant with compliance to the FDCPA or local statutes within the state wherein Allied Interstate does business.
Upon determining who the collector was that abused me, seperate charges of abuse, and a seperate action of facilitation will be brought against Allied Interstate, and the collector involved. If the collector is terminated in order to prevent us from determining his identification, then a follow up charge of conspiracy to avoid, defer, and or stymie prosecution will be persued.
Allied Interstate, and it's employees practice a policy of abuse, deception, and harrassing communications to make people pay debts that are either inaccurate, invalid, or that simply don't exist in the first place. When I called to try to peacefully resolve this situation, what the collector didn't know was that I am a former collection agent, a current member of the American Collectors Association, a Four Time ACA Collector of the Year, and throughout my career was considered one of the most consistent, and fair collectors in the country. Further, my debt resolution rate for ACB, and then ABS, (the name ACB became after they were purchased) has never been matched before or since my separation from the company.
I can assure you that I didn't get there by abusing debtors.
My thought, ultimately, is this. From the various complaints there is a thread of truth, and from the resolution of three class action suits there is a thread of company involvement in poor and abusive practices. From the tone of complaints, debtor based or not, there is a commonality of experience, enough to show a pattern which could only exist if it were company policy, and that folks, is conspiracy, which is actionable outside the FDCPA.
In other words, (for the Georges of the world), the damage limit isn't going to be a grand per incident, and you're not going to intimidate me just because you work for Allied. If anything, you're actions on this site only confirm the simple fact that Allied Interstate is in violation of the FDCPA, and is willing to commit to a policy of distortion, misinformation, denial and corruption to achieve it's goals. Not only this, but it also indicates that you're right in the middle of it.
May I suggest the names of a few attorneys, or would you rather look them up yourself?
Stephen
Cincinnati, Ohio
U.S.A.
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